The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1887-05-10
CHRISTIAN UNITY. {"


who notes the schisms, anathemas, ex-
communications, and hatred typical OF
the more vital and Jealous forms of
Christian organization. The intelligent
heather aforesaid has only to cast his
eyes abroad to be convinced
that there is rea lily no rest
ing place for the dove of religious
peace, no olive branch of brotherhood
and love for all ranks and conditions OF
men in the Christian world.
It is absurd to speak of Christian
unity, meaning thereby, as all church
men do, ecclesiastical uniformity.
Where the civil arm is made subservi
ent to ecclesasticism there religious
uniformity is possible of enforcement
by prescription, the stake, and the gal
lows; where freedom of thought and
action are possible there invariably shall
nonconformity prevail. There are some
among us old enough to remember the
flourish of trumpets with which the
Evangelical Alliance was inaugurated );
more among US should remember
the Pan-Anglican Synod and more
still should remember the Ecu
menical Council of Rome, at which
the dogma of Papal Infa lhbility re-
ceived the sanction and solemn indorse-
ment Of the Catholic Church, and be-
came an rticle of faith to the Catholic
world.
What came of all these solemn as
semblies: their resolutions, decisions
and DEGREES? Theoretically they re-
vealed the Divine will, and to the cred
ulous were as binding, as sacred, and as
solemn as the DEGREES of Sinai, empha-
sized as these were by lightnings,
thunders and the awful and mysterious
voice from the cloud of darkness on it's
summit.
Did mankind blindly accept the new in
depreciation of the unsolved mystery? Is
Christian (meaning ecclesiastical) unity
nearer realization than it was before
these assemblies were convened, and
the resolutions of majorities, arrived at
after long and acrimonious debate and
divis ion, were presented to the Chris
tian and heather world as the "oracles
of God?"
Did the hu man intellect renounce its
Divine charter, and abandon scientific
methods of investigation for the deere
tails o dogmatic credulity, and forsake
the theory OF universal federation for
that OF narrow-minded bigotry and pro-
scription?
By no means. The world of thought,
OF morality, and of progress has dis
carded prescription; and, throwing to
the winds mere verbal iugglery and
Faith postulated upon fanaticism, has
sought for truth where alone it can be
found-in the great book of Nature,
whose illumined page, by night and
day, lies open to the patient, intelligent,
devout and conscientious student
And what has been the result of this
and holding on to Nature as the re-
pository of knowledge? Are men less
happy; is human society less stable,
life and property less secure than in the
ages of ascetic gloom and ecclesiastical
supremacy? By no means. The
world is decidedly better than
ever it was; happier and more
prosperous than ever before; and
all this has come to pass not because of
christian unity" as churchmen under
stand the phrase, but in spite of the
spirit and pretense underlying it all.
Our esteemed contemporaries, the
ga. G. c." and the Friend" should
understand that the world has entered
upon the golden age of discovery nd
invention 1t has emerged from the
"dim religious light" of superstitious
veneration for forms and ceremonies,
and stands in the full blaze of day to
challenge and try all things whether
they be true or false. Canons and prec-
edents DEGREES, creeds and rituals are
no longer withes to bind mankind. This
is the age of honest investigation, in
which the human race may attain to
measure of perfection by discarding
dogma and cultivating the gifts divine
thought and intelligence. ''The wind
bloweth where it isteth and thou
nearest the sound thereof, but canst not
tell whence it cometh or whittier it
goeth; so is everyone that is born of !
the Spirit" These are words of the
Great Master whose teachings are not
those of the Creeds, and whose life and
death were protest against the ecclesi-
asticism and dogma of his day
Let our religious contemporaries
realize the spirit of the age in which,
fortunately for both, their lot has been
cast, and devote more thought and at
tention to living issues than to the
dry bones OF miserable past No one
cares, for example, what form
of church government prevailed |
when the emissaries. of Rome
first touched the shores of Britain; the
sole question of the day is, how human
beings can be bettered physically, i'm
proved morally, and enlightened in the
things that pertain to this life. The
sum of religion as declared In the Cos